Summit Semester - Summit Ministries

Summit Semester trains students to live well by worshipping God with their head, heart, and hands.

Summit Semester combines top-tier academic training in a discipleship-focused environment. Semester offers students an extraordinary opportunity for growth and for excellence. Students will be taught to worship God with their head (truth), heart (relationships), and hands (practical living).

Truth: Students will learn from some of the nation’s top Christian scholars to help them understand how to think well and Christianly.
Relationship: Summit Semester staff will help nurture each student’s spiritual formation while forming genuine relationships with fellow classmates.
Practical Living: Students will learn what it looks like to form good habits and live like a Christian in their day-to-day lives.

Summit Semester is a one-of-kind, once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

This 3-month journey will start in the classroom with studies in the areas of Literature, Philosophy, Bible, Ethics, Religion/Worldview, Church History, and Critical Thinking. This liberal arts educational approach within a thriving Christian community will prepare students for the challenges they will face at the university and throughout life. Students will be motivated to become influential leaders who intentionally and effectively shape their culture for the glory of God and the good of our society.

Why Summit Semester?

Students will live in a retreat environment in the San Juan Mountains of Pagosa Springs, Colorado. Over the course of the semester, students will be removed from distractions they encounter on a daily basis. This discipline will help students evaluate the culture, themselves, and how they may live out their God-given identities. By taking this time of retreat, students will be more prepared to make a difference in the world as they re-engage upon their graduation from Semester.

Summit Semester Calendar

2020 Dates
August 28 – November 27

2020 Applications Available on Nov. 1, 2019

What Students are Saying

You really can’t compare Semester to the Student Conference. Yes, they have similarities but they are also completely different. As far as how Semester helped me… let me put it to you like this. If Christ is my anchor, Summit Semester is the chain that has held me to Him. I went through a really hard loss last year with the sudden death of my younger brother. What I learned in the classroom and in the community is what kept me from walking away from my faith.

Being at semester allowed me to gain a better understanding of not only God but of myself as well. It gave me the tools necessary to think through very difficult topics, and controversial theological points of view.

– John K., 2018 Student

Meet the Summit Semester Director

Tripp Almon joined Summit in 2018 and serves as the Director of Summit Semester. He relocated to the great state of Colorado with his wife, Megan, and their kids, Neely and Rogan, from the little town of Newnan, Georgia — just south of Atlanta. Tripp’s passion for educating students in the areas of Christian theology, worldview, and apologetics grew in large part from growing up in a Christian home and then struggling profoundly with the tidal wave of cultural ideas that engulfed him as he entered a secular university. Thankfully, his experience taught him that Christianity not only stands in the marketplace of ideas — it soars.

Since then, he and Megan, an apologist and speaker with Life Training Institute, seek to cultivate an environment where students feel the freedom to ask big questions and are encouraged to pursue real answers. Tripp’s goal is to help young adults live fully-orbed, Gospel-centered lives that impact the world. He thinks that the Summit Semester environment where students are immersed in an intense, discussion-oriented learning environment with a thoughtful Christian community where they are free to deeply explore truth, ask questions, and be challenged to delve beyond the status quo is exactly the place for him and his family.

Before joining Summit, Tripp, a former elite gymnast, coached gymnastics for more than two decades and served as a pastor for 10 years. He and his family love the outdoors and adventure sports, particularly off-road motorcycling. Tripp is also a rally car co-driver with Almon Brothers Racing Team — 2017 champions of the NASA Rally Atlantic Cup Series.

He and his family accompanied by seven staff members and two other families will live alongside the Semester students for the duration of the 12-week program. He and Megan will be serving them in various capacities – including teaching, counseling, and pastoring.

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